the model is pretty and very ladylike, she looks wholesome and i like that she isn't stick thin like models of today. she looks like someone who might actually buy the clothes. the stiffness of her walk probably has more to do with the limitations of filming than anything elsse.

"Modes of the Moment" was a well chosen and classy subject header. The shoes were more incidental.
Note the stockings. Stockings then were either silk (hence the seaming seen), or lisle, the cotton weave we know today as t-shirt cloth. There were no nylons yet. The fabrics then--the silks and serges and all of them were of a variety and richness not seen today.
It was harder for women to dress really stylishly, even in that day when most women were seamstresses in their own homes. Most, the mothers of the nation, dressed in cottons and woolens. My gosh, though, this film details the high-couture of American fashion for the 1 percent of women who might afford it "off the rack".
The model is nice looking. Tastes change, but be assured: we cannot criticize -them-, because we are not of their time. Anyone here today, if you had been born instead to that era: you'd be in that boat, applauding the wind (if male) whenever a lucky breeze flapped a skirt for your surprise viewing.
We can only observe from afar today--and understand, that at core, we are no different today, but are more free for casting off that terrible yoke of "keeping up with fashion", which once was a nearly total and enslaving yoke put upon women, who had very few other opportunities to shine or exceed, than by fashion statements, and so, social climb.
Women today are doing so much more--and it was at that time, in '17, before and after, the movement was afoot to make modern female equality a reality. They worked for posterity.
I'm reviewing social history more than the film--but the topic of fashion needles deep into two bias weaves: women enslaved and women freed.
Peg skirts on one side, Bloomers, the other.

I think the reason the walking looks stiff is because it's the same old speeded-up action as other silent movies so once you speed up normal stepping around, it ends up looking like awkward, quick stomping. And here I thought commercials at the movies was a new phenomenon, looks like they were doing it 90 years ago!

Shhh... the signs are talking...
Man this was actually kinda nice to see, and the file was not to bad for 1917.

A VERY peculiar find here, showing us the latest fashions of the day (1917) (or the modes of the moment, which sounds better!) All the dresses here actually don't look half bad, with some notable exceptions:
That heeled shoe looked AWFULLY uncomfortable to wear.
I'm sorry, but the veiled thing looks like something a bee harvester would wear.
I liked the 'Creative Use Of Ribbon'
Finally, the models are walking way to stiffly. As if they had metal poles down their backs.
Awfully historical, Awfully hysterical too, and short to boot, this is a great download. It's a MUST SEE ON THIS SITE!